Mimi Walters knows all too well what a formidable opponent Jim Gibson can me. In Mimi’s first and ultimately successful run for the Assembly, she won in a three-way primary. While most pundits saw then-OC Supervisor Tom Wilson as Mimi’s primary opponent, it was ultimately Gibson, a school board trustee from Vista, in San Diego County, that ran second.

The 73rd Assembly District, while mostly in South Orange County, takes in a sizable chunk of Northern San Diego County.

Fast forward to the not-so-distant past, and the special election for the 35th State Senate District, vacated by John Campbell when he replaced Chris Cox in Congress (I know, terribly confusing). Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey ran a strong, conservative campaign against Assemblyman Tom “son of the open primary” Harman. Harman eeked out a victory by a handful of votes…

Fast forward to the present. Mimi Walters is now the front-runner in a bid for the 33rd State Senate GOP primary, where Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman is term-limited out of office. Thus we once again have an open 73rd… Read More

GOVERNOR’S GLOBAL WARMING POSITION IS BEST FOR A DEMOCRAT DEBATE It was reported over the weekend in the Los Angeles Times that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to put together a debate amongst the Republican candidates for the Presidency, focused on the issue of global warming. Such a debate might be instructive to the Governor because what he will find is that the debate will not be over how to reduce mankind’s emissions of carbon, but rather the injection of a lot of sound science that profers that the relationship between the earth’s temperature and the actions of man are dubious at best. COERCIVE MORTGAGE DEAL BAD FOR AMERICA Today’s San Diego Union-Trubine lead editorial hits the nail on the head… Read More

GOVERNOR’S GLOBAL WARMING POSITION IS BEST FOR A DEMOCRAT DEBATE It was reported over the weekend in the Los Angeles Times that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is trying to put together a debate amongst the Republican candidates for the Presidency, focused on the issue of global warming. Such a debate might be instructive to the Governor because what he will find is that the debate will not be over how to reduce mankind’s emissions of carbon, but rather the injection of a lot of sound science that profers that the relationship between the earth’s temperature and the actions of man are dubious at best. COERCIVE MORTGAGE DEAL BAD FOR AMERICA Today’s San Diego Union-Trubine lead editorial hits the nail on the head… Read More

Freelance columnist Sunana Batra had a great op-ed in the North County Times last Wednesday, noting the folly of SB 777, including this passage:

I can’t help but shake my head at the misguided parents who have once again drunk the California Teachers Association’s Kool-Aid and see a new law meant to protect homosexual and transgender students as just another nice attempt to make sure no student is ever made to feel uncomfortable. They are the clueless frogs just getting comfortable in the warmth of a cozy bath that makes them feel oh so good and tolerant.After it was posted on Red County San Diego, one anonymous commenter, proudly dubbing himself "Squish Revolution," reacted as follows:

You’re welcome to your opinion, but there are a lot of us that are more concerned about the state’s 10 billion dollar deficit. But, once again, Republicans will… Read More

On this quiet Sunday in the midst of the holiday season, we’ll use this space to cover a few "housekeeping" items for the FlashReport:

Christmas Break As is our annual tradition here at the FlashReport, Flash and the "elves" take a break from gathering up news stories for the holidays. The last time the main page will be updated for the year will be Thursday, December 20. We will restart again on January 2. If past experience is any indicator, we’ll still see a fair amount of activity on the blog through this time!

Snap.com on the way out? After a steady drumbeat of complaints about the Snap.com pop-ups on our main page, we’re close to shutting that feature down. So if you really enjoy it, and want us to keep using it, now would be a good time for you to drop us a line and let us know that!… Read More

On this quiet Sunday in the midst of the holiday season, we’ll use this space to cover a few "housekeeping" items for the FlashReport:

Christmas Break As is our annual tradition here at the FlashReport, Flash and the "elves" take a break from gathering up news stories for the holidays. The last time the main page will be updated for the year will be Thursday, December 20. We will restart again on January 2. If past experience is any indicator, we’ll still see a fair amount of activity on the blog through this time!

Snap.com on the way out? After a steady drumbeat of complaints about the Snap.com pop-ups on our main page, we’re close to shutting that feature down. So if you really enjoy it, and want us to keep using it, now would be a good time for you to drop us a line and let us know that!… Read More

We’ve had a bad run here in Fresno with our athletic program. Our former basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian, built a winning program and the world’s 20th busiest arena, but left under NCAA sanctions. His successor, Ray Lopes, violated NCAA rules regarding contacting recruits, and a star player was convicted of murder. Drugs were rampant in the program, and drug tests routinely doctored or ignored. Although football and baseball were spotless, the entire athletic program was under a cloud.

Three longtime female athletic department employees – two coaches and an administrator, were fired under former Athletic Director Scott Johnson. The firings were handled poorly and three gender discrimination lawsuits were filed against the university. All three probably had some merit, but the latest, a $19 million judgement against the university in favor of ousted basketball coach Stacy Johnson – Klein, was excessive.

Now State Senator Dean Florez(D) Bakersfield, best known for his opportunistic, arrogant grandstanding on a variety of issues,has called for the President of CSU Fresno, John Welty to resign. We can debate the merits of his… Read More

What does it mean when of all people on the San Diego City Council, it is Donna Frye that is the articulate voice against bigger government? Well, last week, that is exactly what happenned, as she and colleague Tony Young cast the only two dissenting votes on hiking the city’s hotel-room tax. I read with disappointment that the City Council in San Diego voted 6-2 (with only, of all people, Donna Frye and Tony Young voting no) to create what they call a "tourism marketing district" in San Diego. Let me explain how this works. In the geographic area specificied for the district (in this case, a broad area) there are 175 hotels. The Council, in establishing this district, increased the hotel tax for these businesses (via the bill on their guests) by 2% raising the hotel room tax (called a "transient occupancy tax") to 12.5% from 10.5%. What was the justification for an increase of taxes in the City of San Diego? The theory is that this is a tax that was "asked for" by the hotel industry, as the funds coercively taken… Read More